Lifestyle Design

I've been on a quest for digital independence for almost five years now, and only recently achieved my goal thanks in part to paying off my debts in a debt avalanche.

It all started when Angie and I were walking on a beach in Mauritius on our long-term trip that I said we should have a five year goal for digital independence.

The idea at the time was that we'd build up our websites to the point that we could sustain them as a full-time business. And while I was able to do that for myself in the time-frame, we're still on our way to working to that point for her.

Since that fateful conversation, the Financial Independence Retire Early (or FIRE) movement has taken off. Although it sounds like our story would be a case study for this philosophy, I really have to say the idea of it is, to put it bluntly, absurd.

When we are at home, we like to have constant reminders of our travels. From the random knick-knacks to hand painted artwork we pick up on the road, our house is covered with decorations that remind us of where we've been over the years.

But one of our favorite pieces of travel art is one that does not come from our travels, but is about our travels- our world map!

For many years we were settled with a DIY travel map with push pins we made ourselves, but after a while we knew we were in need of an upgrade. We searched the internet, read countless reviews, and settled on one that appeared to be leaps and bounds better than the rest- Conquest Maps.

Those who know us instantly assume it is because of this travel blog and that we bounce around from press trip to press trip. But we often shock them when we say that is not our scene and we go on few, if any, hosted trips. In fact, when we travel we don't even pitch brands to work with.

It is something that we never enjoyed doing, so we don't do it.

Our travels are instead primarily paid through points which we acquire in a mix of Angie's travels for her day job and travel rewards credit cards.

In the past we've published a detailed travel hacking guide to how we've acquire nearly a million points in any given year (link above- highly recommended to read in tandem with this article). But today we want to dive down deep into the cards that we have in order to make this happen.

All cards featured herein are cards we personally have in our wallets right now (both of us in most cases- double the rewards!), and we will do our best to update this guide as we open or close cards in the future.